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Never thought I'd ever break one of these...

Zeus33rd

Zeus33rd

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The death wobble has been rearing it's ugly head again lately, so I figured it was time to re-set the king pin preload on the ballistic fab springless arms. I haven't touched it since the initial install a year or so ago. Headed over to a buddies place to use his driveway. Should be a pretty simple job right? Of course not. :doah:

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And just for shiits, the bronze bushing-
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I broke it with a 3/8" allen socket on a 3/8" ratchet. Almost zero torque was required to snap it. So little that I sat there lookin at it like a retard for a few seconds wondering wtf had just happened. That's a 3/4" diameter, fine thread set screw. :eek1: It looks like it's been broken/cracked for awhile though...but still...wtf?:confused:

On the plus side, I guess I found the cause of the death wobble...

Hopefully Fastenal has one. They open at 7am....gotta get the big red abscess out of my buddies driveway before his HOA has a aneurism.
 
Probably defective. Ive done that to some tools before. Zero torque just BANG SNAP, then the WTF just happened moment.
 
Ive had new head bolts do that when being torqued down.Bad quality control is all it is.
 
Stomis said:
Probably defective. Ive done that to some tools before. Zero torque just BANG SNAP, then the WTF just happened moment.
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100% correct. It's obvious by lookin at the breaks. Just a bit irritated about having to impose on my buddy by leaving it in his driveway overnight after what was supposed be no more than a couple hours. It sticks out like a sore thumb in his neighborhood. :doah:
 
Fastenal didn't have a 3/4" fine thread set screw on the shelf, but they did have some grade 8 bolts. It looks kinda goofy with a big ass bolt sticking out of the steering arm, but in the long run a lot stronger I think. No more death wobble either. :pimp: Maybe one of these days I'll order an actual set screw...maybe not. :whistle:

Also, fastenal is one of the coolest stores I've ever been in. :eek1::bow:
 
Fastenal has some nice stuff, their cobalt drill bits are top fuel.

Glad you got it fixed, I wonder if it cracked because it got loose and the impact cracked it, still shouldn't of broke anyway really.

I gotta ask, what's HOA, can't think of anything.
 
folkenheath said:
Fastenal has some nice stuff, their cobalt drill bits are top fuel.

Glad you got it fixed, I wonder if it cracked because it got loose and the impact cracked it, still shouldn't of broke anyway really.

I gotta ask, what's HOA, can't think of anything.
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HOA= Home Owners Association.

I was looking at it closer with the Fastenal guy this morning, judging by the hole in the bottom of the smaller piece, I'm starting to think a bit of water/mud/whatever got in there and just sat there, and rusted...and rusted...you get the idea. You can see a "ring" of rust around the hole. Fastenal guy pointed it out. Interesting theory. I'll post up some pictures of it later tonight.
 
Mud, how did that get in there...? :D


And duh, home owners, I was trying to think of some acronym for his wife! :haha:



And how tight did you tighten that jamb nut after you set the preload on the setscrew? If that jam nut was tightened a metric sh!t ton it could break the set screw like that.
 
I got a PM over on Pirate asking for some high res pictures of the set screw, so here they are. Click for full size. Click again for full, full size. :eek1::haha:



 
folkenheath said:
Mud, how did that get in there...? :D


And duh, home owners, I was trying to think of some acronym for his wife! :haha:



And how tight did you tighten that jamb nut after you set the preload on the setscrew? If that jam nut was tightened a metric sh!t ton it could break the set screw like that.
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I tightened it with a 1 1/16" wrench. Not a "metric shiit ton" though. :haha:
 
judging by the rust and clean metal area that screw was defective for a bit.

i have seen a lot of breaks in my time and thats a clasic widow maker that missed you.

had a 4 wheeler 1 time my friends and i were trashin on hard. not 5 min before the spindle snaped off by rubbing up against a tree at 3-4 mph behind me and my friend walking in the woods was his brother on it when it fell off.

we looked at the spindle and it was half cracked for a long time with a rust/clean line like that also.

we were lucky that day for sure. :whistle:
 
sweetk30 said:
judging by the rust and clean metal area that screw was defective for a bit.

i have seen a lot of breaks in my time and thats a clasic widow maker that missed you.

had a 4 wheeler 1 time my friends and i were trashin on hard. not 5 min before the spindle snaped off by rubbing up against a tree at 3-4 mph behind me and my friend walking in the woods was his brother on it when it fell off.

we looked at the spindle and it was half cracked for a long time with a rust/clean line like that also.

we were lucky that day for sure. :whistle:
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You're definitely right about it being cracked for an extended period of time.

The clean, black spot in the middle of the first picture is part of the bottom of the hole for the allen wrench. The shiny part is just from me dicking with it after the fact. And even if the top part of the set screw and jamb nut had actually popped off, there wouldn't have been any kind of catastrophic failure due to just that. The bottom half of the set screw was still in there and the steering arm itself was still securely held on by the studs and nuts. I just wasn't getting any preload on the king pin. Made for the worst death wobble I've ever experienced...started at ~20mph and continued all the way down to less then 5mph. :eek1:

Interesting part failure.
 
Call ballistic I'm sure they'll make things right :haha:
 
Fastenal is a cool place, my local manager recognizes my phone number when I call. He stocks that cool serrated hardware that Kert uses too.

The one thing I really don't like about those arms is the location of the grease zerk. Damn thing is so close to the locknut that I can't get a socket over it without removing the zerk first.

howdiy said:
Call ballistic I'm sure they'll make things right :haha:
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Funny stuff right there.
 
That's funny I didn't catch the saracasm the first time I read it! You'd think I would of...:haha:
 
howdiy said:
Call ballistic I'm sure they'll make things right :haha:
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In all seriousness, they did "make things right" with me (after I filed a paypal dispute for a no-ship after ~6 weeks.) I was sent a refund along with an apologetic email and they sent my original order anyway (no charge.) I think they are trying to rebuild their burnt bridges, I won't order from them again, but there is still a small chance that they will at least send you a new set screw/jamb nut.
 
Blazinaire said:
In all seriousness, they did "make things right" with me (after I filed a paypal dispute for a no-ship after ~6 weeks.) I was sent a refund along with an apologetic email and they sent my original order anyway (no charge.) I think they are trying to rebuild their burnt bridges, I won't order from them again, but there is still a small chance that they will at least send you a new set screw/jamb nut.
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Meh...

I'm not worried about it. It's 100% functional now, and stronger to boot. Don't feel the need to contact an already pain in the ass company for something so small.
 
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